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January 15, 2009

Police: Man stole shark with bare hands

by Sam Savage

Police in Nassau County, N.Y., said they have arrested a man who allegedly grabbed a shark out of a fish tank in a pet shop and hid it in his jacket.

Investigators said Elbert Starks, 30, entered the Total Aquarium store in Lynbrook Dec. 12 and grabbed the $350 nurse shark out of its tank with his bare hands, Newsday reported Thursday. He left the store with the shark concealed in his jacket, police said.

Starks is also alleged to have stolen a cashier's wallet Jan. 2 at Pet Barn in Franklin Square and used a credit card from the wallet to buy a $300 eel at Parrots of the World in Rockville Centre hours later.

A police spokeswoman said Starks, who is charged with felony grand larceny and misdemeanor petty larceny, was keeping his pilfered fish in a 200-gallon personal home aquarium.